A Job for this Useless Goddess - 08 (Patreon)

Aqua was a simple person and as such, her plan was also simple.

The restaurant needed business and business needed workers and she was the only one working. Normally, such a plan would have integral components to it such as paying workers, advertising or acquiring raw ingredients, but that would take far too many steps.

No, her new and improved business plan would skip straight to the profit section through her own force of will and the greatest business strategy she could muster; the fear of missing out.

By her calculations, there was enough food in that larder following Kazuma’s departure to last for a few weeks for paying patrons or at least a few days if it was all just for her. She would cook up a storm of halfway decent meals with wafting aromas which she could fan out and around the city, keeping them as exclusive as possible. She would then waddle out into the dining area and eat them in front of anyone passing by like a showcase of fattening treats.

Keeping the meals limited to a few servings a day would generate demand, by which she would trade them, not for money, but for home cooked meals made by others. Some of that she would trade on towards others, but the majority she would eat in exclusive window-side sessions where she would moan and praise every delicious bite like it was the greatest thing on earth.

The food would come and she would eat. She would grow and obtain more food to feed those around her and so the cycle would continue.

Aqua’s hands absentmindedly rested atop her burgeoning belly as she grinned to herself, caressing her uppermost fold like a supervillain stroked a Persian cat.

It was the perfect scheme which she was certain no human would have ever come up with.

She set herself to work starting with a simple batch of cookies.

***************

Groggy and slightly full from the night before after much taste testing, one batch of cookies had finally lasted long enough to complete the cooking process. Aqua’s enormous belly rumbled as she lumbered her way out of the kitchen and into the dining area.

Two chairs were no longer enough to contain her enormity as she nonchalantly added a third to the most obvious spot by the window looking out. The city’s citizens were already hard at work, milling about their day with some in search of breakfast.

They would not find any of that here.

The chairs behind her creaked with an audible groan as she lowered herself onto them and began to undo the large basket of goodies. This was her ‘small’ serving now which she had taken as a sample. After having stuffed herself non stop with them around the clock the night before, she was certain that she would be sick enough of them to exercise a little more restraint.

The saliva building up in her mouth would suggest otherwise as she watched the steam rise from the basket as she undid the cloth covering. The powerful aroma of cinnamon and brown sugar immediately filled the room and seeped through the cracks in the frost covered glass.

She knew she had to make a show of this and it took every ounce of her willpower to not just gobble them all down on the spot. She took one and gingerly placed it upon her waiting tongue. Whether it was because she was eating in a new location or because she had simply not eaten anything in the last thirty minutes was anyone’s guess, but the way it melted in her mouth was heavenly.

Performance art was Aqua’s forte but she barely had to expend any effort other than to eat and praise her work. Stares of passers by gradually fell upon the guild restaurant as the enormous arch priest set her gluttony on full display. Most were drawn by morbid curiosity as to why such a woman would get so enormous while others were baffled by how she could even stand.

The whole day carried on with this sort of work as well as nibbling. Up to this point, Aqua had just been stuffing herself for three large meals, but this was the first time in her life that she had ever taken upon constant nibbling. A little bite here and a little bite there, every moment ready to put on a show for anyone who dared peek through the large bay window leading to the street outside. Strangely enough, she never felt full or the urge to go into her post-meal naps to digest the contents of her overstuffed belly.

By the time it came to ‘closing’, several baskets lay empty against the enormous apron of her belly that sagged almost to her feet. She had eaten ‘quite a bit’ by her calculations and had attracted the stares of many prospective customers. The sheer implications which such an enormous woman could have on food she clearly enjoyed was not a concept known to many but in time, she would expand her prospects.

She was loving this new plan.